Times of India; Wednesday, Apr 27, 2011,
AJMER: Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal's promise to provide quality higher education down to the rural areas was a contrast to the number of anomalies recently unearthed in the Regional Institute of Education, Ajmer also run by the Union ministry.
The police has seized documents related to purchase and contract agreements, and has started a probe into the alleged irregularities as per the direction of the Central Vigilance Department.
"The purchase of furniture and other items were done illegally as proved by the documents sought under the RTI," said Saurabh Bajad, Congress spokesperson in Ajmer.
Bajad took the matter to the chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) and submitted the documents demanding a probe into it. "There were anomalies even in the contract of recruiting bus services in the institute. The institute had floated a tender for 52-seather buses, but the contract was given to 24-seaters on the same rates," added Bajad.
The CVC directed the DGP to investigate the allegations. Deputy SP Yogita Meena has seized the concerned documents of the institute and asked its purchase in-charge Bhanwar Singh to report to the police. "According to the preliminary investigation, Bhanwar Singh is responsible for irregularities in sanctioning tenders," an official source said.
The irregularities were revealed when NCERT director Ragvindra visited the campus sometime ago. The staff demanded to know why the budget for repairing the building and purchasing furniture was not sanctioned. "As per initial probe, the irregularities are worth Rs 50 lakh," Bajad added.
The institute was opened in 1962 by HRD ministry as a cell of NCERT to produce quality teachers. It also runs courses like BSc, BEd for KVS and CBSE schools. K B Rath, principal of RIE however, chose not to comment on the issue.
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